[center][h1]-Collab Between Pezz570, 13org, Fetzen and HokumPocus-

[color=dde0c7]Octavio[/color]
[color=ff9900]Týfurkh[/color]
[color=00aeef]Chres[/color]
[color=6ecff6]Karina[/color]
[color=ed1c24]Akai[/color]
[color=a2d39c]Sil[/color]
[color=#ffff66]Lynx[/color]
[b][color=c4df9b]Tayla[/color][/b][/h1][/center]

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If Sil would have been where Týfurkh currently was, Sil would probably have been a happy familiar. However only as long as Sil wouldn’t have a firm grasp on the concept of a quite brutal and unhappy death that resulted in a red puddle, too! Týfurkh’s charge had ended with him raising his foot in the last moment in order both to kick the archer very firmly as well as to get rid of some momentum instantaneously. Now very firmly was actually dead as the momentum had been quite a lot and the steel boot unforgivingly hard. Blood poured out of the man’s mouth as his heart was still beating and his body twitching, but the end was inevitably near.

The second guard had drawn his sword and managed to keep Týfurkh at bay with it. The giant lacked the shield he had held in his hands before, but even with it he would not have been an expert at using it. He thought about a plan as his magic wouldn’t do much good at this short a distance and with the spontaneity of a melee either.

Suddenly, Týfurkh turned on his heel until it was his right side that was facing towards the soldier. He knew from experience that his shoulder plates were one of the most sturdy things about his armor and just like everything else about him, they were pretty large. Using them as both a shield and a means of ramming, he rapidly closed the gap between them and kept pushing, thereby taking away a lot of room to play around with the sword. This way the soldier could not pick up a lot of momentum with it and what means of straightforward stabbing remained was not enough to punch through Týfurkh’s chestpiece. In the end there was the wall and the guard pinned against it. Týfurkh now used his right elbow to help with the immobilization while his left fist was busy hitting whatever soft spot on the man’s body he could find.

With the archer down. Chres charged on ahead. He took out his hatchet raised it for a strike-

A winged familiar flew between the six guards. [color=00aeef]”Sil?”[/color] Sil’s head jerked towards Chres, causing her to fly head first into the nearest guard and collapse onto the ground.

Distracted, Chres’s strike never came. Instead, the soldier struck first, forcing Chres to have to quickly Weave a wall between him and death. He dismissed the wall immediately and thrust his freehand forward. A blade shaped into his hand, but it only nicked the guard. 

Apparently the guard hand judged Chres’s thrust as some sort of awkward punch. He attempted to knock away Chres’ attack with his own arm, earning him a wound in the process. The guard leapt back to give himself some distance.

“Jewl, give us some cover!” The soldier shouted.

A female soldier behind the guard, presumably Jewl, removed a pair of spectacles from her face and let them fall beside a nearby torch. The spectacles appeared to absorb the light, then suddenly four more guards materialized out of nowhere.

Chres cursed. Where they illusions? One of the illusions took a swipe at Chres, which he blocked by Shaping a blade. Chres’ construct made contact. Not illusions. They had substance. Light constructs then. Even worse.

Jewl replaced her spectacles with a new pair and dodged away in order to blend in with the other guards. 

[color=00aeef]”Go for the door!”[/color] Chres shouted. He kicked away the nearest construct while blocking the blow from another by throwing up a shield. He quickly stepped back to readjust his positioning. Last thing he needed was to get surrounded.

Even though Karina was still in the back of the group, recovering from the ice attack she used earlier, she still kept her rapier on hands, ready to attack whoever came too close to her or to jump into action if someone else got into a tough situation. Watching as Týfurkh charged towards both the archer, instantly taking him down before being confronted by the second guard. Karina was considering going to help him, but after seeing Týfurkh using his armor and weigth to pin the guard into a wall with a charge and hit him continuously with his heavy fists, she almost felt sorry for the poor man that was on the receiving end.

In the middle of the battle though, a familiar face appeared, flying right between the six guards and going straight towards one of them, hitting him in the face before falling to the ground. Due to that event, Chres, who was getting ready to hit one of the guards, hesitated, which made the guard strike him first. Thankfully, he was able to block the guard's attack by making a heat construct between the two of them before retaliating with a blade made of heat.

Just after Sil, Akai came, quickly going to where Sil was, grabbing her and flying between the soldiers until she was behind the group.

[color=ed1c24]"I don't want... to be the one to bring bad news... but the Sightless knows about everything..."[/color] Akai said, out of breath.

[color=ed1c24]"The close encounter with that... thing... wasn't what I would call 'relaxing'!"[/color] Akai said, still trying to catch her breath, holding Sil in her arms.

Karina watched as Sil came, followed by Akai and heard her words with a worried expression. Those were really bad news indeed. Before she said anything though, one of the guards shouted towards the female soldier behind him, asking for some cover. The woman used a strange ability, that, at first, made Karina think it was just illusions, but the moment Chres blocked one of the illusion's strike, actually making contact with it, Karina knew it was much worse. With the added information that the Sightless already knew of their little plan, they had to move fast.

[color=6ecff6]"How many ability users they have?!"[/color] Karina said, looking at the woman, Jewl, with an annoyed expression.

[color=6ecff6]"Got it! Let's go! We don't have time to waste!"[/color] Karina said, nodding towards Chres as he shouted for them to go for the door.

“The door!” The soldier cried in response to Chres and Karina. “Guard the door!” 

In response, Jewl tossed a glass marble in Karina’s direction. As the marble began to suck in the light around it, ropes, with the heads of snakes, shot from the marble and towards Karina. They slithered towards her, attempting to coil around her legs.

Three other soldiers headed for the door as well. All three unaware of the hitchhiker, Sil, crawling up the back of one of the soldier’s uniforms. 

The bunch of seconds it had taken for Týfurkh to take care of the second guard in his reach he had been unable to see what was going on behind his head. As he was finished and turned himself around he instantly didn’t like what he saw: More guards or at least creations that behaved like guards ? Okay. Darkness around them ? Not so much. Magic ropes with the heads of snakes, probably highly poisonous even ? Highly dangerous. And, last but not least and in spite of the fact that Týfurkh actually felt happy about Sil returning to Chres alive: The news that the Sightless had discovered them and their plan ? Catastrophic!

And yet, as highly reasonable as the idea of running for the door was, it just simply couldn’t be executed with that many hostile obstacles in the way. Or could it if they just took the time to prepare ? Maybe the guards not openly attacking them anymore but staying at the door was not such a bad thing after all…

Týfurkh made a large step to the side, positioning himself rather close to a wall next to the dead and trampled archer. There he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but no words could be heard. His jaws moved and his lungs clearly did some heavy duty, but there was silence around him. Hopefully Chres, Karina, Sil, Akai and all the others would understand what he was doing and hopefully the guards would have no idea about the same. He was preparing an acoustic trap, a very small, invisible spot floating in the midst of the air right in front of the soldiers. Once ready all it would take was for some provocation to make them more forward a little.

The guards cried out as they ran straight into Týfurkh’s trap… or rather Sil, the hitchhiker, did. Having climbed atop a very confused guard’s shoulder, she lept ahead of them man

[color=a2d39c]”Door! Door! Door! Door! Door!”[/color] Sil shouted happily in quick succession… only to trigger the trap moments later. All three guards were sent sprawling on their backs. Sil, having taken the brunt of the blow and being as tiny as she was, was sent flying.  

[color=a2d39c]”No! No! No! No! Noooooooooooooo!”[/color] She cried, as her body was launched through the air, only stopping as she made contact with Jewl’s face. Jewl let out a loud “Oooooph”. Her body, falling to the floor unconscious. 

Chres shook his head as he fended off an attack from an illusion. [color=00aeef]”Leave it to Sil to be only accidentally helpful.”[/color] Chres grumbled with a sigh.

[color=dde0c7][i]Or maybe not becoming a bard [i]was[/i] the right choice,[/i][/color] thought Octavio, admiring Jewl’s prowess. His light constructs were geared towards more general applications, so it was a bit intimidating to see someone versed in a more military, strategic style of combat. Strategy, or in Octavio’s words, ideas that all fell apart the second the chaos of a battlefield truly manifested itself. The amount of sparring matches or training regimens one went through were no longer important when something like Sil hit your face like a frying pan at top speed. Even the noise Jewl made was ridiculous. 

[color=#ffff66]“What on Earth?!”[/color] shouted Lynx.

[color=dde0c7]“Great work!”[/color] responded Octavio, nearly simultaneously. Both him and his illusion had been guarding each other’s backs, lashing out to strike a weak point whenever it presented itself. There was an abundance of them, given the constant violence erupting all around them, which they took advantage of to the fullest. At the sight of the sprawled guards, however, he had a change of plans. Leaving his illusion to fend for itself, he sprinted towards someone else.

[color=dde0c7]“Would this count as mugging? I don’t care, regardless.” [/color]

It took maneuvering past multiple hostile opponents, but he approached her seemingly unresponsive body to take the spectacles. 

The moment Karina began running towards the door though, one of the soldiers shouted for the remaining guards to block it, in response to her and Chres' shouts. Jewl immediately acted, throwing a glass marble in Karina's direction. As it got out of her hands, the marble began sucking light around it and after a while, ropes with the heads of snakes began getting out of the marble and going towards Karina, trying to coil around her legs.

Forcing to reduce her pace, Karina continued going as fast as she could, while trying to cut any rope that got too close from her legs. She knew that if they managed to trap her, it would only make the entire situation worse.

[color=6ecff6]"What are those things?!"[/color] she said with an annoyed tone as she continued trying to open a way to the door by cutting the snake-headed ropes.

Fortunately, she was paying enough attention on her surroundings to notice when Týfurkh positioned himself close to the wall and opened his mouth, almost as if he was shouting something but with no sound getting out of it. While she didn't know exactly what he was doing, she knew that he was using his ability for something and considering where he was facing towards, he was aiming to where the other soldiers where. Giving a small nod, Karina slowed her pace even more to give Týfurkh both the time and space he needed to use his ability, while focusing on keeping the strange snakes away from her.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, Sil didn't catch on to what Týfurkh was trying to do and simply continued on her way towards the door. Having taken a ride on another soldier, Sil leapt ahead of him just as the trap was set, triggering it and sending the guards sprawling on their backs, which made Akai immediately start laughing, not only at the woman, but at Sil as well, whom, just like Chres said, had a huge talent in being accidentally helpful.

Sil got up in a daze. [color=a2d39c]”Nnggh....”[/color] She groaned, despite being unable to feel pain. [color=a2d39c]”What happened?”[/color]

[color=ed1c24]"Sil! Let's go! Don't make me rescue you again or I'll promise you I'll do so by grabbing you by the legs and dragging you with me!"[/color] Akai said after a good laugh, waiting to be sure she was okay before continuing on her way. If Sil took too long to reply, she would fly towards her while the guards were on the ground and try to grab Sil and get away before anything could block them.

Sil shook her head, her appearance transitioning back into her fairy form. 

[color=a2d39c]”All yours!!”[/color] She exclaimed happily. Going flat as a board, she stretched her legs out in anticipation of Akai dragging her across the room. On the other side of the room Chres groaned in annoyance. 

Seeing Jewl on the ground unconscious made Karina much more relieved, seeing how she was one of the most dangerous among the guards. While it was true they had little time, for a moment, Karina stopped, looking towards Jewl's unconscious body. She could be very troublesome for them later and now was a very good time to make sure she wouldn't be able to fight them again... Just as she did so, Octavio, who was already close to her unconscious body, approached Jewl and searched her body, taking her glasses with him.

[color=6ecff6]"Don't delay, Octavio! Just take anything that could be dangerous from her! We need to do something to prevent her from immediately coming after us once she wakes up."[/color] Karina said, nodding towards Octavio.

One of the illusions took a swipe at Chres that was far too close for comfort. Chres cursed as he swiveled out of the way. Panting, he threw up a wall between him and the light constructs, effectively blocking a follow up attack. 

[color=00aeef]”Where are we on that door?!”[/color] He cried.

Týfurkh grimaced the moment he could only watch and see how probably the least robust member of their party happened to relocate herself right into the trap he was setting up while everyone else appeared to have noticed in time what he was up to. Luckily he had only had little time to charge that thing, otherwise it would have been a lot more lethal and Sil might very well have ended up as a cloud of red fog. That was assuming Sil’s blood was indeed red, of course, and not some color just straight from the other world her fancy mind seemed to be. Someone, anyone, REALLY needed to talk to her!

This was not the time for such, though. Týfurkh hurried to reach the door, using a mixture of jumping and daring maneuvers in order not to trample more people he already had this day. He stopped when reaching Jewl though, the one individual Karina had just told to deprive of anything that could be used against them. A spontaneous thought crossed his mind about how that problem could be solved more efficiently. Why not take Jewl with them as a whole ?

Not breaking a sweat, Týfurkh lifted Jewl and threw her over his shoulders before picking up his pace again. [color=ff9900]”Everybody look out for a nice place to dump her!”[/color]

A well, perhaps ? Or some dark, tiny chamber whose door happened to have a big lock and a key ? Týfurkh didn’t really care at this point as long as it could serve as an obstacle.

[color=00aeef]”How about that dark little room over there?”[/color] Chres suggested, nodding over to a near by room with its door wide open. If she Jewl waked in there, at least she wouldn’t be able to use her powers… Speaking of which…

The glass marbles Jewl had tossed on the ground when dark. Her illusions vanishing with them. Chres breathed a sigh of relief. Jewl’s remaining companions however began to sweat. One companion rushed up the stairs shouting for help, the others got to their feet and recomposed themselves. 

Chres however, took that moment to shoot for the door undoing the lock and throwing it wide open. 

[color=00aeef]”People of Shimmertown!”[/color] Chres shouted, [color=00aeef]”Come to arms and take back your wall! Join us now so that we can open this gate!”[/color] 

The nearby people let out a cheer. Some went to spread the word, while others proceeded to rush the wall.

By this point the Jewl’s remaining companions had made a mad dash up the stairs to regroup. Although only a few villagers had managed to make their way in at this point, things were starting to look up. A few of the villagers gave chase to the soldiers charging up the stairs, while others rushed the halls of the lower floors instead. 

While these handful of villagers might have given Chres and the other some much needed relief, they were clearly more of an unorganized mob than a unit. And that alone meant that the battle here was not yet won.

Chres sighed. He could feel the wariness beginning to sink in. A loud crash sounded somewhere distantly above. The hell could have that had been? Chres wonder before shaking away the ideal thought. [color=00aeef]”Come.”[/color] He said while waving the others to the stairs. [color=00aeef]”We must make sure the job is done.”[/color]

More villagers began to rush into the wall going whichever way they chose. As Chres took his first step up the stairs. Another crash. This one much closer. Cries came from above. Chres hesitated. This he hadn't imagined.

The ceiling made a loud groan shortly followed by several loud cracks that spread through the rock. Chres paused, taking a moment to look at the ruined stone ceiling. Oddly, the ceiling had sunken. Rubble spewing from the crack. Another loud groan followed. The wariness left in an instant followed by alert. 

[color=00aeef]”GET DOWN!”[/color] He started to shout. His warning drowned out by the sound of the ceiling caving in on them.

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Tayla stepped back as the floor beneath her collapsed into the floor below. Casually, she spit out the used bit of sweetened cotton which she had used to drastically increase the weight of the stone floor all the while trying to ignore the chaos ensuring throughout the wall. She had just collapsed three stories off stone floor hoping to catch her target by surprise.

Getting to her knees she peered down into her newly created pit trying to pinpoint the bitch, assuming of course that she was alive. As the dust started to settle, she could make out the slender form of a woman with rapier in hand... There. 

Tayla pop two tuffs of cotton into her mouth. One sour. One savory. She leapt through the hole in the floor, the cloud of dust enveloping her. Using the sour cotton tuff, she modulated the linear velocity of her clothes, slowing her fall. Tayla landed next to the figure who she presumed to be her nemesis. Touch the ground beneath the woman, She quickly used the savory cotton to warp the ground beneath the woman's feet.  

The ground beneath the two of them lurched upwards through all three newly created holes. Talya stopped her warping effect abruptly. The ground beneath them instantly returned to its normal state. Their momentum, however, continued onwards. 

Tayla let the woman fly away into the forth story of the gatehouse, leaving her the the mercy of her velocity. Tayla however, used the sour cotton tuff to again modulate and change the velocity of her clothes allowing her to land comfortably on the ground without hitting any walls or ceiling.

Whipping out one of her twin swords, Tayla popped a bitter cotton tuff into her mouth. Tayla made two alternating kicks, during which, see she decreased the friction of her boots. The boots slide off her feet as if coated in butter, leaving her feet bear and exposes. Tayla had learned the hard way. In order to beat this woman, she would need to pull out all the stops. She would need to using her powers to their fullest, and that meant she would need to make contact with objects in more ways than just through her hands.

Tayla stared down her opponent, raising a fistful of coins into the air. She felt a well of hate and envy fill her as she stared into Little Miss Perfect's cold eyes. Tayla opened her mouths to speak. 

[b][color=c4df9b]"Hello, Princess."[/color][/b]

Coins launched from Tayla's hand, sending death Karina's way.
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